| Servings |
| 8 people |
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Today I’m taking you to a special place where family and friends gather around the dinner table with happy hearts. Silverware is optional, but bread is not. Settle into this sacred space, where tagine of lamb meets chestnuts, figs, cinnamon, honey, and orange blossom water. Pause for a moment to celebrate this crazy wonderful combination, to feel the hot air blow through your hair, then dig in and scoop up the glory with a handful of bread. When you’re done, cozy up to an evening of conversation so good you wish you could bottle it.
Tagines are Moroccan party food – each nibble is filled with glorious, cheerful flavor; a festive bite of beauty; a deep, dark bowl of goodness, glimmering like the Moroccan night sky.
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- 1 red onion , sliced in half moons
- 2 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 4 lb lamb , cut in large chunks
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp saffron (threads)
- salt , to taste
- 1 12 tsp pepper
- water , as needed
- 7 oz dried figs
- 1 cup roasted chestnuts (jarred)
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1/3 cup water
- 1 tsp orange blossom water , optional
- parsley , for garnish
- Layer the bottom of a tagine with sliced onion and vegetable oil. Gently heat over medium and cook to soften the onions.
- Meanwhile, gather your spices. Saffron lends the most haunting flavor to the tagine, while ginger and garlic give it kick. And cinnamon makes everything better. Cut the lamb in large chunks and toss with spice mixture. Add to tagine and cook until tender (I cooked mine at a gentle simmer from 1:00pm-5pm and it was outrageously good. You can cook yours for just 2 hours and still have good results).
- Then, get to work on the special honey fig and chestnut garnish. In a small pot, toss the figs with butter, water, honey, and orange blossom water. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until caramelized. Remove from heat and stir in the chestnuts. Add to the tagine in the last five minutes of cooking.
While a ceramic tagine is ideal for slow, moist cooking, you can also make a great tagine in a heavy bottomed French oven. If you use a ceramic tagine, be sure to soak it overnight in water to keep it from cracking. Also, never heat it over medium heat. You can eat tagine with a fork, if you’d like, or you can scoop it up the traditional way – with flatbread or even French bread. Orange blossom water is available at Middle Eastern markets.
I found that I didn’t need to add any water to my tagine, as the meat and the onion released quite a bit of juices and the tagine could barely hold them all. That being said, most recipes recommend adding 1/2 cup of water. If yours seems dry, just drizzle a bit of water down through the hole in the top of the tagine. This way the cold water will cause the steam to condense and drip back down over the meat.